Details:
① Artwork:
Threat Value
In this work, a traditional Afghan wool rug is cut, spliced, rearranged and merged with a US-made synthetic area rug. By crossing two rugs and trading their material in a one-to-one ratio, the artist is taking inspiration from the concept of genetic recombination, a process where DNA is swapped. Asif Mian deconstructs South Asian craft traditions and reinvigorates them with processes sourced from science, technology and video. His work explores how memory, ritual and other behaviors are impacted by violence, and how healing might be achieved in its aftermath.
Specs:
③ Artist:
Asif Mian uses sculpture, textile, drawing and video to explore how violence impacts ritual, behavior and memory. He reinvigorates South Asian craft traditions—such as textiles, mosaics and rug making—with scientific and technological processes. Mian splices and ruptures these traditional storytelling techniques, producing a web of fragmented facts and fictions.
Asif Mian was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He earned a MFA in 2018 from Columbia University in New York City and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He also holds both a BA in Studio Art and a BS in Biology (Genetics) from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.
Solo exhibitions of Mian’s work include: RAF: Prosthetic Location at the Queens Museum in New York City (2021); RAF’s Red Plaid at CRUSH Curatorial in New York City (2019); and Asif Mian: Everyday/Chiasma at Fjord Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2019); among others.
Group exhibitions showing Mian’s work include: Queens International 2018: Volumes at the Queens Museum in New York City (2018); Always, Already, Haunting, “disss-co,” Haunt, curated by the Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellows of the Whitney’s Independent Study Program (ISP), at The Kitchen in New York City (2019); The Shed: Open Call at The Shed in New York City (2019); and Beyond Geographies at BRIC in Brooklyn, New York (2019); among others.
